WEBVTT - They Don’t Care About Us: What Migrants Leave Behind 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:04.920 All media. It's me James, and before we listen to 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.800 this episode today, I just did want to make you 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.920 a way that I conducted these interviews in French and Spanish, 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:14.239 mostly Spanish, and then transcribed and translated them. So what 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.159 you're hearing is a translated interview that's being edited for 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.799 brevity and content. I hope you enjoyed the episode. 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:34.120 LVY awesome. Yeah, the journey is dangerous, but what can 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.000 we do. We can't stay in a country where the 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.400 economy is getting worse and worse. With a salary of 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.800 three dollars a month, you can't survive. Like my friend said, 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:47.479 if you have a job in other countries, maybe you 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:49.720 can invest some money. But where are you going to 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.159 get the money to invest If before you had a 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.000 salary that fed you paid for your car, your house 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.120 and your children to enjoy it all with, and now 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.600 you can't even afford to put gas in the car. 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.080 So it's true. Yeah, the darien is dangerous, but nothing 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.720 is impossible. We walk hand in hand with God and 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.120 with the faith that we will get there. But that 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.039 doesn't mean it isn't difficult. But I'll say it again, 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:17.480 it's not impossible. You suffer, you cry, you go hungry cold, 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:19.399 but thank God we made it through. 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.200 Bored around the Tuquesa River, the jungle rumbles quiet as 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:34.600 you pass by on your boat. Insects, frogs, and birds 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:36.760 all combined to make a sort of deep throbbing that 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.280 emanates from the darkness between the trees. It seems it 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:42.600 wants to be calling you in and warning you to 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.040 stay away. I've been in the jungle before, in the 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:50.080 Rwanda Congo borderlands and in Venezuela, but I've never really 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:52.160 felt the sense of foreboding I did as we rode 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.800 down the river, protected only by our hollow log, looking 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:57.560 into the triple canopy forest, and knowing that if I 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:00.120 walk long enough in the shadows, I'd be confronted with 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.000 the remains of people I might have interviewed if it 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:05.040 hadn't been for a rolled ankle, a slippery rock, or 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.800 a desperate sip of water. To understand what drives people 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.280 to enter the jungle with their children and their dreams, 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:13.760 I think we also have to understand what drives them 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.280 to leave wherever they're living. And that's what I want 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.600 to talk about today, the story of migrants crossing the 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.320 Daddy and gap is an American one. It's impossible to 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:25.280 disentangle the people making this dangerous journey from the history 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.280 of support for dictatorship sanctions, an imperial plunder that ties 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:31.680 the United States to its American brothers and sisters in 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.880 the South. Sometimes I play a game with myself at 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:36.640 the border where I try and meet people from all 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:39.079 the countries named in Washington bullets in a single day. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.919 Since Biden bungled the Afghanistan withdraw, it's become a lot easier, 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.760 but Tibet can be hard. For two hundred years, since 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.160 President Monroe gave the State of the Union address in 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.200 December eighteen twenty three, the US has seen the Western 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.400 hemisphere is its sphere of influence. What is opposed old 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:58.680 fashioned colonialism. It has used less avert methods of control, 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.160 as well as overt military across the hemisphere. For much 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.280 of the last century, it supported and installed dictators who 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.200 would prevent what it saw as a threat of state 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.120 socialism in its sphere of influence, and allowed them to 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.160 create economic and political climates that were unsurvivable for the 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:18.000 majority and extremely profitable for US based corporations. The direct 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.639 result of this policy has been economic insecurity, political instability, 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:25.280 and state violence across South and Central America, resulting in 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:27.880 people making the very natural humor decision to flee to 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:32.000 somewhere safer. As in so many other empires, they've made 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.320 the choice to lead a destabilized colonial periphery and seek 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:38.800 safety instability in the metropol For more than a century, 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.320 money and good to be able to travel seamlessly up 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.559 and down the continent, but people have not. The bananaread 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.080 for breakfast this morning made the journey in a few days, 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.200 but people take months, if not years, pay thousands of dollars, 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.440 climb mountains ford rivers, and risk their lives on trains 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.640 and buses that cost a lot more than the flights 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:00.480 I took to Panama, but offered considerably less comfort and safety. 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.720 As climate change has have a greater impacts, more and 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:05.720 more people are forced to leave their homes so their 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:10.000 livelihoods become less sustainable. The Guna, the indigenous people at 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.520 the Panamanian coast, in an area called Guna Yala, are 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:15.680 having to withdraw from some of their islands because of 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:19.200 sea level rise. Right now, agriculture across the world is 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.800 increasingly threatened by extreme weather and rising temperatures, and our 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:24.920 oceans are less they're able to sustain life than they 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.480 once were due to pollution and overfishing. Forced to leave 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.280 their homes as people have been for millennia by weather 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.440 patterns changing, people head to places that have want to 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:37.280 caused much of the issue and tried to insulate themselves 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:42.359 from its consequences. Their American dreams are modest to overcome 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.080 the crippling low paid. They received a home to bring 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:46.520 their children up in a place where they have a 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.520 good chance of surviving their twenties, to work and get 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.760 paid enough to get by. They want to be able 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.320 to protest and not get shot, and to look forward 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.600 to the future not feared. These aren't guaranteed in the USA, 0:04:58.160 --> 0:04:59.680 and as many of you listening will know, it can 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:01.560 be high for us to make ends meet here as well. 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.400 But despite what you see on social and legacy media, 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:07.720 things are unlikely to become as bad here as they 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:12.040 are in Venezuela, Cameroon or Iran anytime soon. I've lived 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:15.320 in Venezuela, specifically in the formerly jab eastern neighborhood of 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.000 La Pastora in Caracas, and I've seen how hard it 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:20.599 is for my friends who still live there. Even for 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.360 people with no other disadvantages, making rent and feeding your 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.640 family can be a challenge. That's part of why Venezuelan 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:28.680 people make up the majority of the folks I met 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.520 men daddian so much so that I'd slipped back into 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.760 using Venezuelan slang in Spanish, and after a few days 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:36.640 of seeing the same people engaging in the kind of 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.520 friendly mockery and banter that I remember well from Caracas, 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:42.200 mostly the super form of asking them why they crossed 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:44.960 a Daddian gap in Man United shirts or worse yet, 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:47.600 in a Chelsea shit. It's important to steal moments of 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.320 humor in these difficult times, to laugh a little among 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:52.800 all the suffering, and that's something people in Venezuela have 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.960 done very well for a very long time. But despite 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.360 their humor, I could tell the journey had a serious 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:03.200 impact on the people I spoke to. 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:05.760 You have to go through a lot, a lot of jungle, 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:08.960 a lot of hills. There are people, there are dead 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.840 people on the road, so it's something you cannot really explain. 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.160 It's complicated because everything can be explained in a fashion, 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.280 but it's not the same as living it. It's insanity. 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:23.000 Three four days with that food and nothing. One thing 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.920 is to live it. Explaining it, talking about it, that's different. 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:28.440 It's hard to put into words. 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:31.440 This interview is when I conducted with one group of 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.760 Venezuelan migrants with my voice recorder in the chest pocket 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:36.800 of my shirt and whatever bags it let me carry 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.760 in my hands. We walked along the last part of 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.680 the trail, discussing what they'd seen. For a while, we 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:44.880 joked a little. One guy had crossed it a man 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:47.000 United ship. I talked to him about the team and 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.800 the universal dislike non Manu fans have for Menu fans. 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.400 Then after a while they opened up more about their experiences. 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.599 They had, they said, seen their bodies, and they couldn't 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:58.680 stop thinking about what happened if they had for them, 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.520 and they wanted to know how when or if the 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.640 dead people's family would ever find out. 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.800 The family waits for that person to come out to 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.440 hear that they made it, because if not, who's going 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.680 to let you know? There's no signal and nobody's going 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:17.600 to grab the body, and you're not going to carry 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:21.000 them out. The person stays there and eventually years and 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.280 years go by and the family won't know where they 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:25.920 are or how they died. Those are the sort of 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:28.680 things that one doesn't expect to see, and it makes 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.000 you just want to hurry past. Not that you wouldn't 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.240 want to get the documentation from the body and deliver 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.440 it and tell them how this person had passed away, 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:37.960 But how dare you just go grabbing a dead body? 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:41.400 Nethuinan elections were held on the twenty eighth of July 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.680 this year. Venezuelan pressions have a six year term and 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.760 the incumbent, the Colasma Duro, has been in office since 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:51.200 twenty thirty. I let the Venezuelan people and that introduce 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.360 themselves and explain the result of the election. Now there's 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.040 a bit of background noise here, but that's because we're 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:57.800 walking on the trails and it's hard to avoid. 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:05.360 I am coming from Venezuela, migrating through the jungle for 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.960 a better future for me and my children. I'll tell 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:12.120 you it's hard, but it's not impossible. No, that was 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.160 electoral fraud. And I tell you what, one day, you 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:16.120 just have to leave. 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.680 Maduro was opposed by A Juardo Gonzalez, an opposite candidate 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.560 who represented a wide coalition in creating groups on the 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.800 left and right. While Maduro might have support among Western 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:31.240 socialists and even communists, the actual Venezuelan Communist Parties youth 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:35.280 organization formed part of the Popular Democratic Front that opposed him. 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.320 Despite Paul Watchers tallying a massive victory for the opposition, 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.800 Moduro controls the National Lecture Council and proclaimed himself the victor. 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:48.560 People protested, and Maduro responded with bullets. Gonzales fled to 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.079 the Dutch and then the Spanish embassy, and later claimed 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.520 asylum in Spain, where his family lived. But for regular 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.160 working class Venezuelan's there's no option to hop on a 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.319 flight to safety. Instead, they have to be in the 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.640 long walk north, as many Venezuelans in respect you told me. 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:07.000 In addition to the electoral fraud, Venezuela is undergoing an 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.760 economic collapse, at least in the Chavis. He said, most 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:12.120 people could eat. When I lived in La Pastora, I 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.280 was able to access medical care from Cuban doctors. Now 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:22.440 they say things have become a Survivaldo. 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:40.280 So you're Venezuela. When Venezuela, well, I would say that Venezuela, 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:42.920 you know, yeah, you can live but not on a 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:43.640 minimum wage. 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.360 I would say that, for example, working independently in an 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:52.000 independent business, maybe you can live good. But working and 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.760 surviving for a minimum wage now, the truth is that 0:09:55.840 --> 0:10:00.079 it doesn't work, and that's serious. Things are still bad 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:02.640 with the new elections and the new government. Everything is ugly. 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:02.960 Yeah. 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.400 The streets of Caracas are full of protests. Every day. 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.240 People went out to protest. Sometimes they shoot people. The 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:12.520 government mistreats people. But if you can live with it, 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.880 and you can live with it it's ugly. Well, that 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:18.000 is why we left there for a better future, and 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:20.120 we will keep moving onward onward. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.360 This group were young men traveling in advance with their families, 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.000 hoping to earn some money, save it up, and send 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.720 it home. They knew what they were getting into when 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.560 they got to the USA, that migrants were often underpaid 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.320 and might struggle to make ends meet, but they still 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.560 thought it was better than staying home and watching your 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:39.800 children's future disappear. 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.600 If you don't have papers, you don't have a work permit, 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:46.640 you have to work for it. They want to pay you, 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:48.640 not for what you demand or anything. 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:51.960 I met lots of Venezuela families with children who had 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:56.000 different illnesses or disabilities, things they couldn't obtain or afford 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.319 treatment for in Venezuela. They were traveling to the US 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.400 in the hopes of a better future for their kids, 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.360 or any future at all. I met young men who 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:07.040 left their children behind but carried the children of strangers, 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:10.600 even those with whom they didn't share a language. Christian, 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:12.760 who he heard from earlier, showed me how he'd carried 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.120 someone else's child on his shoulders until he fell and 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:16.120 hurt his knee. 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:17.760 We all help. 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:19.600 I put little children up here on my shoulders to 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:20.880 carry them, but it isn't easy. 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.319 In the jungle, they'd formed chains using their arms to 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.880 cross rivers and carried little children on those who couldn't swim. 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:30.040 In Barji Guito, I saw a group of men from 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.560 Angola receiving hugs from Venezuela and women they'd helped in 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:35.600 the jungle. Without the help of the Angolans, they said 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.200 their children wouldn't have made it. One slip or a 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.800 loss of grip, they told me, would be fatal, and 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:42.920 the remains of those who had done just that served 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:47.040 as a grisly reminder. Later, little boys, maybe eight or 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.880 ten years old gleefully recounted seeing a dead body on 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.320 which the head had quote exploded while their parents winked 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.880 in recollection. I wanted to understand a bit more of 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:58.840 what they were fleeing. That made it worth going through 0:11:58.840 --> 0:11:59.120 all this. 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:03.760 Venezuela. 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.880 Well, I left Venezuela because I worked in fishing. But 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.560 right now in Venezuela, despite the fact that it is 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.240 a country rich and oil, there's not enough gasoline for 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:15.959 the fishermen to go fishing. And since I did not 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.280 have the ability to even buy basic things such as food, 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:22.360 the situation was, well, it was a little complicated. I 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:24.880 had to immigrate. I had nothing else to do. They 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.839 didn't rob me, well, they were going to rob me 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.840 because I didn't have anything to steal. We passed by 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.640 and the group that was behind us got robbed. They 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:34.839 raped women in that group. 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.480 Almost every Venezuelan micro and I speG to share a 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.720 similar story. One said he didn't stare security cameras, but 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.520 nobody could afford them now, as it had to choose 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.440 between rent and groceries or medical procedures that they needed 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.679 but couldn't afford. Overwhelmingly they said the same thing. No aifuturo, 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.679 there's no future. One group said to me that they 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:57.920 couldn't wait for their country to become like Cuba, as 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.920 decades of embargos took their toll on the population. But 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:03.160 others reminded me in them that least of Cubans seem 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:06.800 to have doctors. Venezuela has an eighty percent poverty right now, 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:09.200 and though it sits on one of the largest oil 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:11.640 reserves of any country on Earth, it's been plagued by 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.760 planting oil prices in the years of hyperinflation, which got 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:16.920 so bad at one point the shots stopped putting price 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.040 tags on things and relied on staff to give up 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:23.280 to the minute prices. Today, alongside a regime that lacks legitimacy, 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.400 a state that readily uses horrific violence against its people, 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.120 an election that was essentially ignored, Venezuelan's must also deal 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:35.000 with shortages of basic goods, poverty, and malnutrition. Unlike Cubans 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.320 who have a relatively good polittal lobby in the USA, 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.680 Venezuelan's coming to the USA do not benefit from special laws. 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.360 Cubans under the Cuban Adjustment Act have a part of 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.000 the citizenship and permanence once they set foot on US soil. 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.720 Venezuelans do not. They're covered by something called a temporary 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.600 protected status, but this does not afford them much in 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.800 the way of stability, protection, or a secure future. His 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.920 Ereka Pinhidro of Alotolado and Incredible organization does valuable work 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:04.080 with migrant legal aid advocacy and humanitarian relief, explaining just 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:05.720 how temporary a TPS is. 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:11.240 So temporary protected status is it's basically a form of 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:15.040 protecting individuals who are already in the United States when 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:19.800 their countries have experienced a natural disaster, if they are 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.520 in war, there's some kind of situation going on that 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:28.360 makes it difficult for them to return, and so temporary 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.960 protected status was first created in nineteen ninety and the 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:37.040 first individuals who receive the status were from El Salvador, 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:39.560 and since then, I think there's been a few dozen 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.400 countries that have been designated. But basically the way it 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.800 works is they designate a country and so if you 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.440 were in the United States before that designation date, you 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:55.600 can apply for temporary protected status within a designated time 0:14:55.600 --> 0:15:00.400 period and you get a work permit. It's valid for six, 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:04.640 twelve or eighteen months and then two months before it expires, 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:09.240 the Secretary of the Department of holand Security has to 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.200 say whether or not they're going to reauthorize GPS. So 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:16.520 there's like eight hundred and sixty thousand people in the 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:22.240 US who have temporary protected status and it's not a 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.680 path to citizenship. So basically people are just in limbo 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.840 sometimes for decades, you know, they just have to reapply 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.320 for this permit every eighteen months. So I have quite 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.480 a few salvador and friends who've been in the United 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.200 States since the nineties. They have kids, some of them 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.040 current kids, or a US citizen, and they can't become 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.520 permanent residents or have a path the citizenship unless they 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.360 leave the country and either come back with another type 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.280 of parole or you know, apply through a consulate, which 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:54.760 many of them are just not willing to take that risk. 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.360 Well, makes things even more complicated for the Venezuelans is 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.560 that many of them are traveling without document. It costs 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:03.520 three hundred bucks to get a passport, they told me, 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.080 and the weight's considerable. This makes their journeys even harder 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:09.240 as every country the enter has to approve them to 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.760 without a passport. Getting a visa, they said would be 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.360 nearly impossible, and just trying that result in the government 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:19.040 coming after them. Such things, they said, are reserved for 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.720 the wealthier citizens, people like Gonzales, who's asylum claim and 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.320 stays at the Dutch and Spanish embassies, and his right 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.800 to join his family in exile are all luxuries that 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.440 most of his country people can't expect. Instead, most Venezuelans 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.600 must ride buses through Columbia, then walk north through the jungle, 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.080 then ride buses stir away on trains, or walk again 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.680 all the way to the border. They all lamented the 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.680 Dadian crossing and so they wouldn't advise it without other options. 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:51.720 They all made it anyway, community. 0:16:51.520 --> 0:17:03.360 See, because because unfortunately we don't have much in our country. 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:05.520 You don't have another option. When you're dying of hunger 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.320 and you don't have a future, you can't even study. 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:10.800 So yeah, it's worth it. 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:16.000 The economic situation is dire in Venezuela. Many families can't 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:18.679 make end me, their currency is almost worth us, and 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.119 the majority government seems to have successfully installed itself for 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.440 the foreseeable future. This will mean a continuation of embargos 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:28.400 and sanctions, which will harm the people more than the regime. Sadly, though, 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.600 economic hardships is not a criteria which won't be grounded 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:33.840 asylum in the usah Erica. 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:39.320 Again, so severe economic deprivation can be persecution if it's 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:44.280 linked to one of the other protege grounds, so race, religion, nationality, 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.680 political opinion, or membership, but in a particular social group. So 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:54.879 for example, if someone participated in anti Maduro political activity 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.720 and then we're blocked from getting a job or just 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:03.199 denied economic opportunities to the point where they're starving, the 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.880 economic deprivation could count as persecution, but it's a very 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:12.040 difficult case to make in the United States. In Mexico, 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:17.000 you can get protection based on generalized conditions in your country, 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:22.640 and so you know, Venezuelans betweeing economic collapse or even 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:27.480 Central Americans fleeing extreme violence have a much easier time 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:31.040 dating protection in Mexico than they would in the United 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.400 States because of that kind of extra category of protection 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.840 in Mexico. The issue with Mexico is just the very 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.199 limited capacity of this islum system overall, and the very 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.880 dangerous conditions in which people are forced to wait while 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:45.240 their cases are judicated. 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.280 Going forward from the Dadian, they'll face an enormously difficult journey. 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:51.960 The US does have a program for Cubans, Venezuelan and 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:54.600 Haitians and Nicaraguans, then in theory allows them to apply, 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.600 be pre approved and fly straight to the USA, but 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.280 it's so delayed and it's just not an option for 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:03.520 people who barely have enough money for food, let learn 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:05.040 a plane ticket there. 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:11.840 This HMV program is for Cumanations, nick Garaguans, Venezuelans who 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.600 have not crossed into Panama or Mexico in the past 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.679 few years. You do not qualify who've done that or 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.399 have not been inter died at sea. If they're Haitian 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:23.960 or Cuban, you have to have a sponsor in the 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.480 United States who have some kind of legal status. You 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.000 have to be able to pay for the flight, you 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.359 have to have a passport, and you have to be 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.280 able to wait forever long it takes for your application 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.879 to be approved. And the Department of Homeland Security just 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:44.280 announced that they are not renewing parole for people who 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.440 are already in the United States. So people from those 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.080 four countries who were in the US head up to 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.040 two years of humanitarian parole, which is not being renewed, 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.440 so they either would need to apply for something else 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.120 or go back to their country, or just I guess, 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:25.920 stay in the it stints undocumented until their codavy. 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:36.760 I heard the same story hundreds of times that week, 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.680 sometimes off mike and sometimes on mike, sometimes holding my 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.719 voice recorder and notebook, sometimes just sitting on the ground 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.480 or walking on the trail or enjoying a bottle of 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:51.080 cold water in Bahjigito. Crippling poverty and bad governance in 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.400 their country made it difficult to see a future there. 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:56.719 They wanted better for their children, so they bought them 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:58.840 across the mountains and risked their lives in the jungle 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:01.840 to give them a chance. And I prepared a lot 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:04.280 for this trip, and I tried to search for everything 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:06.720 I my experience on the internet. But one thing I 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:08.639 really didn't expect to learn in the jungle is just 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:11.320 how much it's possible for parents to love their kids. 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.840 I watched exhausted mothers hoist their babies onto their shoulders 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.399 to keep walking, and somehow come up with a story 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:19.520 that made the whole thing an adventure, not a tragedy. 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:22.639 Then did the same thing again the next day, without 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:26.560 sleeping or eating. I watch fathers carefully lay out their 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:29.200 sleeping map so that children could rest where they tried 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:31.320 to do the same on the dirt or hardwood floors 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.280 every day as their savings grew low and they out 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:36.600 looked more bleak, I watched parents try to smile for 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:40.199 their kids. The sacrifices I saw them make, starving for 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:42.600 days to give their kids something to eat, or spending 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.000 their last remaining dollar on clean clothes for their kids 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.280 while they walked barefoot and couldn't afford shoes really brought 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:50.320 home for me the desire these families had for a 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:52.840 better future and the sacrifices they were willing to make 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:56.760 for one Another. Week later, it's still hard for me 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.320 to accept that I'm home safely and they're still in 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:03.200 as much danger, if not more. 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:07.720 Our walk lasted five days. Thank god I was always 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:09.960 strong enough and able to get back up when I fell, 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:13.000